Skip to content

Mountain View Summit Traditional Cache

Hidden : 10/27/2008
Difficulty:
2 out of 5
Terrain:
3.5 out of 5

Size: Size:   small (small)

Join now to view geocache location details. It's free!

Watch

How Geocaching Works

Please note Use of geocaching.com services is subject to the terms and conditions in our disclaimer.

Geocache Description:

This cache is located near one of the highest summits in the Ossipee Mountains, which doesn't have a name on the USGS map but is called "Mountain View" on a 1920s map of the Plant estate (see Gallery). There would be a nice mountain view from near the radio towers if more trees were cut down or the lookout tower rebuilt. There is one summit bump near the radio towers and another across the clearing.

The cache is on property of the Lakes Region Conservation Trust and their map doesn't show any closed areas. Some websites and maps (including the AMC map sold by LRCT) call this summit Mt Faraway, but the true Mt Faraway (which also once had a lookout tower) is located to the south and can be reached by unmaintained carriage roads.

The Ossipee Mountains are a volcanic ring dike of about the same diameter as Mt Shasta in California and the former Mt Mazama in Oregon. While Mt Shasta is still a classic mountain and the cone of Mt Mazama exploded to form Crater Lake, the Ossipee range has been subject to much more erosion and what's left is the magma that cooled in the underground vents. In the early 1900's, this SW part of the range was purchased by eccentric millionaire Thomas Plant, who removed the existing buildings and built an extensive system of carriage roads and a huge mansion.

After his death, the property was operated as a tourist attraction called "Castle in the Clouds" including horseback rides on selected carriage roads and tours of the mansion. The property was then purchased by a company that built a plant to bottle water from a large spring near the headwaters of Shannon Brook. They had no need for the remainder of the property except to protect the purity of the water so it was sold to the Lakes Region Conservation Trust. Now it is available for recreational use from dawn to dusk: no camping, no fires, no wheeled vehicles. http://lrct.org/public-access.html There is a small parking lot near the bottling plant and a large one on Route 171 E of the Castle entrance. The cache is maybe 4 miles by trail from the bottling plant depending on which route is taken, and a mile farther from Route 171.

One route is to use the Mount Roberts Trail past Bullwinkle cache GCYCQY - the upper part of this trail is over ledges with lake views. Or you can reach the Faraway cache GCM1X8 by the Cold Spring or Faraway Mtn Trail - the nearby viewpoint is one of the best in the range. Amazingly, each cache had only one logged visitor this year prior to my trip placing the Mountain View Summit cache, so why not do a loop hike and hit them both like that lucky person did? From either cache, use the old map to locate the old road to the cache, it is the one with a chain across and an old road roller nearby. You can see the cache area from the trail but you need to get close to see the cache itself. The cache is a pint container and can hold small trade items. Property is open dawn to dusk only, night caching logs will be deleted.

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

Haqre ebpx, haqre ebpx, haqre rireterra gerr arne R ohzc.

Decryption Key

A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M
-------------------------
N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z

(letter above equals below, and vice versa)